Cumberland Sausage with Roast Wedges and Rosy Coleslaw - Monday January 30th 2012

More coleslaw today!

We so enjoyed yesterday's coleslaw that I decided to make more today.

A different mix, a little more earthy, to go with the lovely meaty sausage coil. So today, we have carrot, beetroot, celeriac, poppy seed, sesame seed, in a garlic mayonnaise seasoned with my homemade Blackberry Vinegar (again, if you haven't made your own, you can get excellent fruit vinegars including blackberry from Womersley Foods )

Cumberland Sausage Coil with Roast Potato Wedges and Rosy Coleslaw 

Salmon with new potatoes and home made coleslaw - Sunday January 30th 2012

It is Linda's fault as ever... she wrote about coleslaw on With Knife and Fork and it reminded me how exciting home made coleslaw can be compared to the bought version.

This coleslaw had shredded white and red cabbage, carrot, celery, cauliflower,with a a little iceberg lettuce in a sauce made of excellent Farrington's Rape Seed Mayonnaise with a slurp of my Orange and Fennel
Vinegar (home made, but you could use Womersley Orange and Mace Dressing instead) - not too much mayo/vinegar mix, just enough to coat the vegetables or it gets gloopy.

How healthy is that!

Grilled Salmon with new potatoes and home made coleslaw

We had a dessert today as well, which is unusual but I just fancied something else fresh and seasonal to finish off.  Champagne Rhubarb (the bright pink forced kind) is fully in season at the moment, as are Seville oranges, so I roasted the rhubarb with a sprinkling of sugar and the juice and zest of a Seville orange, and served this with Toffee and Honeycomb Icecream (Stapleton Farm via Sainsbury's) and a sprinkling of my home made granola. 

Champagne Rhubarb roasted in Seville Orange Juice with Toffee Icecream and Granola

Italian Braised Beef with Gremolata and Orzo - Saturday January 28th 2012

I had this yearning for gremolata.

The zingy lemony garlicy parsley mixture that livens up anything with tomatoes in it.

So I had to make the braised beef with an Italian tomato sauce instead of a normal English stew with carrots and celery.  Mashed potato doesn't work well for me with Italian braised beef so we had orzo pasta instead. Orzo is fabulous if you haven't tried it yet, it looks like rice, but has a silky smooth pasta texture, which works particularly well with a chunky stew. And over it all went my gremolata.. mmmmmm...

Italian Braised Beef with Gremolata and Orzo pasta, with carrots and celery

Burns Night Supper - Fried Haggis & Clapshot with Apple Sauce - Weds January 25th 2012

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

So said Robert Burns in his great anthem to offal "Address to a Haggis" 


I had a rather more homely dish of Ramsay of Carluke haggis (in my opinion the best haggis available ) which I sliced and fried, and served with clapshot, a mixture of mashed potato, carrot and swede, with home made bramley apple sauce and little light gravy. 


Fried Haggis & Clapshot with Apple Sauce

Pork Belly the other half...Chinese New Year, Mon 23rd Jan 2012

The lovely piece of pork belly I got at Lahogue Farm was big enough for two meals, so it was prepared as per the Pied a Terre recipe, then halved. One was cooked plain yesterday, the other half I decided to give a sweet soy  glaze and have with chinese vegetables and rice to celebrate Chinese New Year today.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Soy & Honey glazed Pork Belly, with steamed vegetables dressed with ginger and soy sauce, boiled rice

followed by a lively dessert of 

Mango Yoghurt Mousse with fresh mangos with mint & lime, and rhubarb with seville oranges & honey nut granola

Pied a Terre Pork Belly Sunday 22nd Jan 2012

I'm trying out different ways of cooking Pork Belly, today I tried a Michelin * recipe from the Pied a Terre restaurant. Very succulent, although quite a lengthy cooking method.

Slow Roast Pork Belly with Mashed potato, brussels sprouts & cauliflower, bramley apple sauce

Comfort Food - Blanquette of Chicken - Tuesday Jan 4th '12

Blanquette of Chicken and Ham with peas and mushrooms, with mashed potatoes.

Sometimes you just want something gentle, soft and creamy yet still full of flavour.  My mother used to make chicken in white sauce for us when we were recovering from flu or measles or some other childhood illness, and this has real comforting vibes for me.

But to be honest, my mum's chicken in white sauce came out of a tin, and I wanted to recreate the feeling without the preservatives, so a proper blanquette (albeit possibly a quicker version than the traditional French version using veal and veal stock) is what I made. 

Check into A Greedy Piglet to find the recipe shortly.

New Year's Eve Dinner - December 31st 2011

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope your dinner last night was delicious and memorable.

We ate here at home, just the two of us, so nothing very fancy schmancy, but I was very pleased indeed with what we did have.

Devils on Horseback - Stoned prunes soaked overnight in water, then steeped in port for a couple of hours, wrapped in streaky bacon, baked in the oven until the bacon is cooked and crisp. Served on spinach, rocket and watercress salad with a drizzle of Wholegrain Mustard and cream sauce. Easy and very delicious.

Followed by Spatchcocked Poussin stuffed under the skin with chestnut and chorizo stuffing, served with roast new potatoes and fine green beans.  The poussin keeps so tender, and spatchcocking makes it very easy to portion in halves for the two of us.

Dessert was delicious but not very photogenic at all!  So no pictures... sorry...

Apricots poached in port and orange juice with vanilla icecream. Really this was just an excuse to crack open one of our remaining bottles of luscious dessert wine - an Italian Moscato - Maculan Dindarello. If you see this on a menu, then do try it. Possibly the most delicious thing ever invented to drink with a sweet rich pudding.

Our last dinner of 2011 was a cracker, I do hope yours was too, and I look forward to sharing my dinners with you through 2012. 

Happy New Year!